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Onyx (ONXX) story in a nutshell? Docs can't wait to get their hands on it for RCC patients. Wall Street thought the progression free survival should have been 8 months instead of 6 months. Result? Happier kidney cancer companies and a 17% drop in the stock price. Go figure (that shouldn't be seen as a recommendation to buy the name, just an illustration of how crazy biotech is sometimes).

Genentech (DNA) story? Avastin is the new miracle drug and Herceptin's potential market is now doubled. That was last week's news, apparently, so it's down 2.5%.

Biggest wish here at ASCO? That Sugen was still its own company so we could buy based on the SU11248 data without buying all Pfizer's (PFE) baggage. Sugen was purchased in 1998 for $650M by Pharmacia (later acquired by Pfizer). Popular estimate of what Sugen's market cap would be after all the positive data seen so far? $2.5-$3B.

Other Buzzworthy companies:

Medarex (MEDX) for their anti-CTLA-4 drug MDX-010. Often mentioned in presentations, decent early data. Competitive drug in development by Pfizer, but Medarex gets royalties on it, too. Partnered with Bristol-Meyers (BMY) earlier this year, in Phase III trials for malignant melanoma.

Cell Therapeutics (CTIC) gets the award for best spin. Its big trial (STELLAR 2) showed the drug numerically underperformed Taxol in every category and had worse side effects (outside less hair loss). The trial data was so jumbled the only thing it "proved" was that PS2 lung cancer patients should go to Russia for treatment because patients treated there in this trial lived months longer than patients treated elsewhere regardless of whether they got Xyotax or Taxol. Since they showed statistical significance against another chemo in a different trial (but not statistical significance overall) and issued a masterful press release, the stock is up 6%.

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